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Tutorial: Brightening of very dark caps (quick & dirty)
As Anita's wish is my command the next rambling of mine will be about animated gif optimization. But for now, a very quick way to brighten up dark caps and reveal hidden details.
That's actually one of the shortest tuts I've ever written :) you'll end up with only four layers *gasp*
It's the quick&dirty way, and if the caps aren't of the very best quality you will get problems with the graininess, but other than that it works just fine *g*
examples: before and after
no color layers, no screen layers, no selective coloring, no curves, no variations.
wait, what's left then? heee! well, a softlight layer and levels. that's it.
step 01: Choose your pic
This little trick works best with really dark caps, such as this... (credit to _jems_)
step 02: The main Trick
Duplicate your background layer and invert it (press ctrl+i).
Set this layer on blending mode Softlight.
This way we will brighten up dark parts, but if the pic has still some light areas they won't become too bright. Basically we even out the contrast... while revealing hidden details.
step 03: Levels
and as we now lost too much contrast, we're adding an Adjustment Layer - Levels.
Look at your histogram. The main area, where the "curve" is visible is the area we want to emphasize. So you have to drag the right slider to the left to the beginning of the rising.
You do the same for the left slider, right where the bump begins.
Make sure your preview is tagged and look at your pic. The left slider will bring back the black, which is important as here there are the most artefacts visible (and really annoying). Drag until you're satisfied with the result... and don't freak about the graininess too much!
step 04: Finetuning
make a new layer and merge-copy paste the whole pic on top. (Ctrl-shift+alt+e)
use auto-contrast on the new layer. (Ctrl-shift+alt+l)
Sharpen it (as this technique is quite harsh qualitywise, it may be a good idea to only sharpen the edges).
Crop it, this way we will get rid of the artefacts, noise and grain ;)
always brighten up your cap not your cropped icon! this way you will have much less trouble with the graininess...
(ok, I cheated and cleaned it up a little bit *g*)
you're ready to work on the colors if you want to, or just on the saturation or whatever...
That's it, have fun! :)
Feedback is very appreciated.
That's actually one of the shortest tuts I've ever written :) you'll end up with only four layers *gasp*
It's the quick&dirty way, and if the caps aren't of the very best quality you will get problems with the graininess, but other than that it works just fine *g*
examples: before and after
no color layers, no screen layers, no selective coloring, no curves, no variations.
wait, what's left then? heee! well, a softlight layer and levels. that's it.
step 01: Choose your pic
This little trick works best with really dark caps, such as this... (credit to _jems_)
step 02: The main Trick
Duplicate your background layer and invert it (press ctrl+i).
Set this layer on blending mode Softlight.
This way we will brighten up dark parts, but if the pic has still some light areas they won't become too bright. Basically we even out the contrast... while revealing hidden details.
step 03: Levels
and as we now lost too much contrast, we're adding an Adjustment Layer - Levels.
Look at your histogram. The main area, where the "curve" is visible is the area we want to emphasize. So you have to drag the right slider to the left to the beginning of the rising.
You do the same for the left slider, right where the bump begins.
Make sure your preview is tagged and look at your pic. The left slider will bring back the black, which is important as here there are the most artefacts visible (and really annoying). Drag until you're satisfied with the result... and don't freak about the graininess too much!
step 04: Finetuning
make a new layer and merge-copy paste the whole pic on top. (Ctrl-shift+alt+e)
use auto-contrast on the new layer. (Ctrl-shift+alt+l)
Sharpen it (as this technique is quite harsh qualitywise, it may be a good idea to only sharpen the edges).
Crop it, this way we will get rid of the artefacts, noise and grain ;)
always brighten up your cap not your cropped icon! this way you will have much less trouble with the graininess...
(ok, I cheated and cleaned it up a little bit *g*)
you're ready to work on the colors if you want to, or just on the saturation or whatever...
That's it, have fun! :)
Feedback is very appreciated.